Seas the Day
Due to the growing number of pirates among the members of Clan Decagon, the One of Many Faces volunteered to run a one-shot specifically for them. This grew in size until over half of the members became participants, creating their own pirates for the adventure. The large group made it difficult to gather everyone together to play at once; thus, several "sub-groups" were formed to provide play for those who could at a given time. This also provided the chance to test a style of beginning the One of Many Faces had been craving: separate. After all, what is the likelihood that so many diverse characters would be working together already? However, due to the One's struggles with scheduling and depression, the adventure was cancelled early. The One of Many Faces gifted another DM, Kevin, with the NPC Saril Wulfenite for use in a spiritual successor following Captain John Longtusk and his crew. Players Dungeon Master: The One of Many Faces * Natalie Black * Rose * Giblet Lily-Axe * Jack Daw * Josephine Longbough * John Longtusk * Magnus Freeman Setting The OS takes place in Syros around and in the Cauldron Sea. Before beginning, the players are given a set of common information and rumors about several of the places, which they can bolster by exploring and learning on their own. The information is as follows: * Map (see picture) * Caster: Main port and rather fancy. * Neros: More realistic coastal town and where ship repairs are performed. * Cvu: Little town on the river. * Kantego: Independent city-state renowned for its orchards. * Tower: High-risk criminals prison island. * Sunder: Rumored haunted. (Is it?) * Asplock: Privately-owned mansion. (Wouldn’t it be a shame if someone robbed this place?) * Villa Dinar: Wealthy vacation spot. (Ditto.) * Oeh: Viscount’s private vineyard. (Yet again.) * Other little islands: Maybe haunted? (Are they?) * Bris: A jungle island known to be where people often become stranded. * Sal: Here there be monsters. (Be they?) * The Belt: A chain of unnamed islands on the way from the Cauldron Sea to the ocean. Story Inciting Actions A dwarven pirate lord that has been away from the sea for far too long, Giblet Lily-Axe leaves Rosha upon the conclusion of the Delivery QS. Though not too far from the Cauldron Sea, where he last left his armada, perilous mountains and a forest rumored to hold death in its branches jut out across the most straightforward path. Opting for safety and carriages rather than imminent demise, he decides to travel on the road. The path leads south toward the heart of the Marble Empire before hooking north through the Kingdom of Tac, but it is the most likely to reunite him with the sea. Josephine Longbough and Jack Daw, searching for wedding presents, arrive in Caster. Jack suggests they go to the docks for a cheap deal. There, he spots something else: a lovingly specialized brig dubbed Kenway, being sold to pay off a noble's legal fines. The seller offers her to Jack for less, provided their deal remains secret or else. Filing this information away, Jack leaves to talk to the Kenway's true owner, having learned that he is probably in the legal offices. Jack tells Darrius about his treacherous seller and strikes a deal: Jack will use the ship for two months to clear the noble of the crime of using Cvuer magic against his rivals. If he does not bring the ship back, he will be much worse off. Thus, Jack sets about finding a crew. Josephine almost recruits a small child, but his parents say no. He points Josephine to a fancy restaurant where "lots of water people" are. They find that the "water people" are actually swimmers in tubes, many humanoid. While dining on the cheapest meals there, Josephine speaks to a half-sea-elf called Rinna Fountaine. She leaps at the chance to sail away with them, mentioning that she did not mean to be captured, and offers to recruit her large family to help as well. With instructions to ask for the Fountaine sisters, she leaves the duo to find a way to free her. Jack orders the finest bottle of wine and the sisters' company, and he and Josephine are brought to a ceremony room where the sisters are waiting. Instead of a tea ceremony, however, Jack distracts the bouncers by pretending to be extremely drunk while Josephine sneaks them to a back door. Finally, the duo leave the restaurant and reconvene outside, hurrying to the ship. Rinna swims off to find her family while the others sleep. The next morning, Rinna returns to the Kenway with several relatives, all female, some (such as herself) exceptionally beautiful for sea elves. As the crew is much closer to the minimum, Josephine leaves to find the last few needed and happens upon a disagreement between a ship's captain and the ship's owner. Apparently, the two are brothers, disagreeing about whether their mother's estate (the ship) should be used or sold to increase her fortune. While the brothers argue, the crew is without work, and Josephine hires them for the Kenway. With the minimum met, they set sail for Cvu. In some land beyond the Cauldron Sea, a half-orc subordinate approaches Natalie Black, informing her that he has found a job that would pay off their bounties. After some banter about the incursion of these bounties and the lack of details given about the job, she agrees to talk to their potential employer. They meet a snooty merchant at a fancy restaurant, who informs her that the job is shipping cargo -- 35 tons of precious jewels and metals. With the warning that each piece will be accounted for with either itself or with blood should it be "missing", the employer agrees to clear Natalie's bounties in seven lands. Her crew loads the ship, making room by selling some of their spare food and rope (which pays to repair a sail). Natalie sets sail, eager to be rid of the plethora of valuable, tempting goods and to go dolphin-spotting. Soon, however, she is disgruntled to learn about the diminished supplies of food and rope, as the first rope items to go were the fishing nets that could have caught more food. One of her orcs had opened a crate to see its contents and brings up some jewels to show her. These replaced, she guards to hold to ensure that no others leave their home for even a moment. A ruckus from above draws her attention, however, and she investigates to find two orcs fighting over the fact that one smuggled a woman aboard in a barrel. Natalie ignores the fight in favor of dealing with the woman. As she suspected, the woman was brought aboard because one of Natalie's crew, Gork, said that he loved her and wanted to take her with him. Natalie tries to explain that he does not love her and is only using her for her body, demanding that she get out of the barrel, when the woman strikes her dumb with why she cannot: she does not have legs. She goes on to say that everyone where she lived treated her as less-than-human since she was crippled, that she was a beggar at best but usually ignored, and that Gork was the first person to care about her at all. Natalie becomes the second person, agreeing to let her stay and suggesting they teach her some skills that she does not need legs to do, such as cooking. The woman, who introduces herself as Gelly, is overjoyed, as is Gork when Natalie breaks up the fight and tells him what decision she has made. Two other half-orcs are also sailing, deep in the Cauldron Sea, near the island Bris. Unfortunately, they are prisoners being shipped to Tower. Even more unfortunately, they are locked in the hold of a ship being pitched about in a massive storm. Desperate to free themselves, John Longtusk and Magnus Freeman try smashing one of the cots against the cell door; the bed bursts, sending springs flying. One has the idea to use a spring to pick the lock. This succeeds, and the men recover their possessions from a chest before heading up. John intends to commandeer the ship, and Magnus follows his captain. When they reach the top, however, it is clear the ship is failing. Angry over their imprisoning, they kill the captain, Magnus taking his hat, then follow the crew's example and make for a lifeboat. They manage to escape the ship just before it capsizes and head into the blinding rain, hoping to reach safety. They land on Bris and set up a shelter -- later dubbed Fort Legbone -- with palm trees as "walls" and the lifeboat as the roof. During this time, a spider bites John, but he disregards it and goes to find something for his pipe. He finds a tobacco plant and is bitten by another spider. Magnus, on the other hand, eats coconuts and hollows them out to collect rainwater for drinking. He stays put, improving their shelter with fronds, vines, and roots, while John looks for other people. He finds a skeleton and takes the jawbone, mumbling about how the skeleton will not mind. The skeleton answers, or so John thinks, delusional from the spider venom. He carries on a disjointed conversation with the skeleton for a while before Magnus comes looking for him. When they find each other, Magnus recognizes that John is unwell and disconnected from reality and takes him back to the shelter for a nap. While his captain rests, Magnus goes fishing, grabbing and killing sizable fish and a small shark with his bare hands. He sets to cooking the meat, giving John a good meal when he wakes. With what little daylight is left, Magnus decides to search for people as well, eventually finding a collapsed and overgrown shelter with another skeleton inside. This skeleton clings to a box, which Magnus takes, as well as some of the more intact planks of the hut for his own. Returning to the shelter, he further improves it before opening the box. Inside are love letters, which John suggests they use for kindling. Sailing into Adventures Stopping in Neros, Jack spends almost all his money on blankets and citrus for his crew. The sea elves provide seaweed and fish regularly enough that little other food is needed. As they are loading the goods, one of the blankets attacks someone. The blanket turns out to be infested by a strange, mouth-like creature that assimilates soft surroundings and uses them as a body. They manage to remove the creature and find and kill others hiding in the blankets, but Josephine keeps one as a pet inside a jar. In Neros, Rose is waiting for her ship's repairs to be completed. While stopping by a dockside tavern, the Sea Turtle, for a meal, she overhears people complaining about how the Duchess of Kantego is coming to twist the Kingdom of Tac's arm. They mention in obscure terms how much better it would be if someone would "prevent" this from happening. Finally, someone starts looking to hire, and Rose offers her services. Told that she would be kidnapping the duchess if she could (but not forbidden from killing her), Rose is asked to meet this evening to receive advance payment and something to assist her. When she returns, she finds that her "something" is a person, a diviner Arcanist named Tyler, who will lead her to the duchess. Rose is not pleased with Tyler's sense of superiority and even less pleased with his name, dubbing him Jean Bob instead, but takes him aboard her ship. They set sail in the direction of Kantego. Tyler aids them to sail faster with his magic during the night before collapsing in the morning. Rose ensures that the ship is traveling in the correct direction before spotting something off the bow: fish in a frenzy, as if fleeing something. Sure enough, moments later a tentacle erupts from the waves and snatches one of her crew. She immediately calls for the rest, and they put up a valiant fight to avenge their fellow and save themselves. One loses an arm, but Rose directs them well until the beast, an immature kraken, is slain. Natalie, making her morning rounds, sees a humanoid perched on the edge of her ship. She frightens it off before hearing a noise below. Going to investigate, she finds the creature has broken a small hole through the bottom and is trying to steal a crate of treasure. She jerks the crate back, but the creature slashes her with sharp claws. She calls for a special member of her crew, who holds the creature out of the water through the hole until the creature suffocates to death. With tar and what little rope they can spare from the rigging, they patch up the ship long enough to reach the nearest port to fully fix it. Nearing Cvu, the Kenway is beset by a strange fog. Immediately upon lifting, the boat is revealed to be entering Cvu's dockyard and must carefully readjust so as not to wreck. Upon docking, Jack looks over the people for "someone who looks like they know about Cvuer magic" and decides that a young woman rough-shod and aged beyond her years with several children is a decent enough bet. He disembarks and asks her if she knows where he could learn more about Cvuer magic, and she offers to take him to a witch. Leading him through the dingy town and into a small hole, he realizes that the children following her seem less and less solid. When he reaches the end of the hole, he pushes through a curtain of seaweed, cobwebs, and strings of bones to find the woman surrounded by shadowy spirits. She reveals herself as the witch and answers his questions about the noble (who had indeed been using her magic to harm his rivals). With this news, he asks if her magic can do something for him: make him a famous and powerful pirate. She mixes his hair into a potion and waters a small plant with the concoction. This she gives to him, telling him that, as it grows, so will his prestige. She leads him back to the docks, where, upon seeing he and Josephine start arguing over the latter's pet, she casts a spell that will cause them to slowly become attracted to each other. Asking them to take one of the spirit-children with them, she departs. Josephine is enamored with her new friend, despite how eerily the "child" behaves. After being landlocked for too long for comfort, Giblet Lily-Axe finally reaches Neros, where he left his ships and crew. Rather than returning to them, he strolls to the beach and lies face-first in the waves, letting them welcome him home. After a while, he stands and goes to consult with his crew. Tyrone tells him the other ships set out rather than pay docking fees. Agreeing that this was wise, Giblet leaves again to try to find cargo to carry and sell. After harassing the day-old-bread store owner, the attendant of the organic vegetable-based diner, and the bouncer of a house converted into a nautical museum, Giblet heads back to the docks. There, he encounters an exceptionally tall woman, Dana Bacharine, asking to hire a ship. He tells her to give him an amount that is the fee for the museum and walks off. She follows him into the museum, explaining that she needs someone to track down a ship that is setting out to kidnap the Duchess of Kantego. She shows Giblet a crystal ball enchanted to scry one of the people on this ship, an Arcanist. Explaining that killing the Arcanist would be bad for his health and the health of everyone he ever knew and cared about, she agrees to Giblet's price for preventing the Duchess's abduction: free entry to the museum for life. Though she is not the owner, she is desperate to prevent Kantego, home of the Disciples, from being weakened and promises to make it work. Stocking up on rum, Giblet sets off. Sailing through the Barrier Islands, Jack decides to start his reign of piracy. He stops by Villa Dinar with the intention of pillaging the rich vacation spot. This is made even easier when the Kenway is recognized; its owner rents a house here. The attendants know about Darrius's trouble and ask if he sent Jack to terminate his account. Jack goes along with this, saying that Darrius needs to limit his spending. The attendants ask if Darrius will be taking his possessions from the house or if they are to be abandoned. Jack says that he was sent to reclaim those, recognizing that he can sell the items. The attendants show Jack to the house, where he dresses more appropriately for roaming the wealthy island. While the they load the Kenway with Darrius's furnishings and finery, Josephine and Jack enjoy their impromptu vacation. Josephine dines on chocolate cake with real pearls decorating it, which she pockets, before going for a massage. Jack steals a goblet from a sleeping sunbather before going skeet-shooting. Both of them are interrupted and brought to an interrogation room, as the stolen goblet was reported and the newcomers were suspected. With sleight-of-hand, Jack hides the goblet; with diplomacy, Josephine dissuades the interrogators from further detaining them. They leave Villa Dinar much richer than when they arrived. After having her ship mended from the earlier attack but put further north by the pit-stop than her original course, Natalie spots a light and smoke coming from the island Bris. Magnus, having spotted the ship at a distance, has created a bonfire, and he and John wave the ship down. Carefully navigating the shoals surrounding the island, Natalie rescues the two half-orcs. John disrespects the slight half-elf, but her orcish crew demonstrate their loyalty to her and attempt to make John understand that she is worth her title. The two accept her help and accompany her aboard her ship, where Magnus mingles amicably to assess the strength of the crew, as per John's instructions. John himself observes and plans for taking over the ship, though with a bard captain, a fiercely loyal crew, and a couple of demigods making up the opposition to this plan, it seems unlikely. The ship continues on its delivery to Kantego. In his search for the potential kidnappers, Giblet sails a bit close to Sal, the island rumored to be plagued by monsters. Sure enough, as he sails past, a group of sirens attack the ship. Chaos erupts as their songs cause the crew to turn on one another, and even those fighting the sirens find themselves reluctant to harm them. Some even jump into the sea to be with the alluring creatures. Stuffing his ears to block their voices, Giblet leads his remaining forces in vanquishing the monsters, and they manage to capture two alive while slaughtering the rest. These are bound and gagged. (If the DM is allowed to speak for the crew, a brief but creative and gory description of torture will be inserted here.) During the night, the spirit "child" wakes Josephine, saying that Fate is here. Puzzled over this, Josephine grabs her weapons and searches the ship for anything amiss. When looking in the sleeping quarters, a glint catches her eye. Sneaking closer, she finds an assassin bearing down on the sleeping Jack. She stops her from stabbing him, and Jack wakes. The ensuing fight is brief but bloody. In the end, the two and a few roused crew members manage to restrain the assassin, who says she is a Fate named Sapphire sent to kill Jack because he "told." Josephine realizes she was hired by Darrius's seller, who offered Jack the secret deal. Searching her, Jack takes the false sapphire on her armor and the real one in her navel before slitting her throat, despite Josephine's protests. In Kantego, John and Magnus finally leave Natalie's ship. They begin looking for another ship to commandeer and learn from a merchant that one fully outfitted and manned ship is seeking a captain. Speaking with the ship's master, Mison Talc, they learn that Kantego's Marine Guard, spread thin with fighting and providing the duchess with an escort, is desperate enough to hire mercenaries. Talc charges them with finding the Kenway. Having been used to steal her owner's property, it appears to be taken over by pirates. As the dominant force on the seas, Kantego refuses to let them go unchecked. John agrees to serve as captain with Magnus as his first mate, and Talc supplies them with a dwarven Disciple named Saril Wulfenite to help them locate the Kenway. As they set sail, Saril explains that she is skilled in arcane magic and begs the half-orcs to protect her from the Arcanists. They do not understand what the issue between Disciples and Arcanists is, but they agree. John intimidates the crew and charges Magnus with getting to know them before heading to the captain's quarters. He finds an abnormal amount of food hidden all over the cabin and freaks out. While the room is cleaned, he joins Magnus and Saril in appreciating the sea. Category:Adventures Category:ManyFacedOne